


Almost Perfect Summer

by mylittlecthulhu (marineko)



Series: Seasons [1]
Category: Arashi (Band), Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-25
Updated: 2010-04-25
Packaged: 2017-10-23 08:38:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/248365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marineko/pseuds/mylittlecthulhu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aiba was glad that his mother had let him travel with Nino that summer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Almost Perfect Summer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amaskuponthesky](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=amaskuponthesky).



> Requested by amaskuponthesky@LJ, based on A Fine Frenzy's "Almost Lover".

_So you're gone and I'm haunted  
And I bet you are just fine  
Did I make it that easy to walk  
Right in and out of my life?_  
\- "Almost Lover", by A Fine Frenzy [[lyrics](http://www.metrolyrics.com/almost-lover-lyrics-a-fine-frenzy.html)]

Aiba was glad that his mother had let him travel with Nino that summer. She had her reservations about letting two teenage boys go off on their own, but because Aiba insisted that they had saved up throughout the year for the trip, she finally relented. He was a little annoyed with Nino’s idea of a “vacation”, though - if he was going to spend most of his time in the nearby game arcades, he might as well have stayed home. Aiba glanced at his friend’s sleeping form, and shook his head.  _Oh well. Let him enjoy the vacation however he wants to_ , he decided, and turned to look at the distance outside with a smile. The sun would be rising soon, and he didn’t want to waste any time.

Putting on his running shoes, Aiba left the room and locked the door behind him. He loved going for morning runs on the beach, and had done so every morning for the last three days they were there. He was on the track team and the school basketball team, so he wanted to be in good shape by the time school reopens, but he knew it was more than just about that. Morning runs exhilarated him, and was probably the part of the day he looked forward to the most. Living in the city, he had only the small neighbourhood park to run in at home. This was the first time he was able to run in such a vast, open space, and the salty smell of the ocean combined with the sight of the beckoning white sands made him feel even more elated than usual.

When he ran, his mind would go blank. There would be nothing but energy and air and the almost floating sensation of speed and flight. When he ran, he worried about nothing.

})i({

Sho didn’t notice the boy running towards him; he was too lost in his own thoughts. He didn’t know why he had come here. He knew that he went every summer, but still, it didn’t seem like reason enough. Not when he didn’t really want to be there. Not when every summer he spent there had been the same.

The boy didn’t just bump into him; he completely knocked Sho down, and tripped himself over Sho. Rather than like being run over, it had felt like something heavy had dropped down from the sky on him. Before he even registered what had happened, he cried out, “watch where you’re going, damn it!” 

The other boy didn’t say anything as the two of them sat up. Then, “sorry.” Sho could barely hear the mumbled words, and it annoyed him.

“Apologise properly when you did wrong,” he snapped, to which the boy responded by looking up quickly, with equal annoyance.

“You were the one who came into my path suddenly,” the boy retorted. “I mean, any idiot would have seen me coming.”

Narrowing his eyes at the boy, Sho asked, “are you calling me an idiot?”

“No, you’re just stupid,” the boy muttered, and coughed a little. He was still panting, out of breath from stopping so suddenly after running so fast. 

“Are you alright?” Sho asked him, concerned. He knew that he was short-tempered, but he cooled down just as quickly - usually faster than it took for the ones he took his anger out on to recover. “I’m sorry for snapping at you,” he said quickly, patting Aiba hesitantly on the back.

“I’m fine,” Aiba wheezed out. “Just need to catch my breath, is all.” He didn’t say anything else as he waited for his breath to steady, while Sho’s hands was still rubbing his back uncertainly. When his breathing had slowed down, he looked up at Sho and smiled. “Thanks.”

A ridiculous thought came into Sho’s mind when he saw that smile.  _Maybe he really did drop down from the sky after all_. Surely a person couldn’t radiate that much light with just a smile. “I’m Sho,” he said, his voice unsteady, withdrawing his hands from the boy’s back.

“Masaki,” the other boy said cheerfully, as he stood up. He held out his hand to pull Sho up, but didn’t let go afterwards. They just stood facing each other awkwardly, holding hands.

After a moment, both of them laughed. Sho didn’t know why he was laughing, and he suspected that Masaki felt the same way. But there was this slow, bubbling feeling of pure glee coursing through him, for no reason at all, and he could do nothing but laugh.

 _Maybe this summer would be different_ , he thought hopefully.

})i({

They spent the rest of the morning together. Sho’s parents owned one of the hotels along the beach, and Aiba learned that Sho spent all of his summers there.

“You’re so lucky,” Aiba mused. “I wish I could be here every summer.”

“Is it really that lucky?” Sho wondered out loud.

“Of course it is! This place is beautiful. And,” Aiba paused, looking around at the hotel lobby, “this hotel is  _amazing_. I can’t imagine growing up in a place like this.”

“I didn’t really grow up here,” Sho said, shrugging. “I was shipped to a boarding school as soon as I was old enough.” He missed his friends at school, not having any at home. Summers had always been long and empty to Sho; friends would promise to write and/or visit, but of course, once the holidays started, everyone got too busy to remember things like that. 

“But still, isn’t it exciting, to spend all your summers here? You must meet all kinds of interesting people, living here.” Aiba’s eyes shone brightly as he still looked around, captivated by the sights and sounds surrounding them.

Sho just shrugged again. He didn’t bother telling Aiba that he was the first interesting person Sho had met in all the summers he spent there. A strange sensation grew within him, and he pushed it away, asking, “what about you? Where are you staying? Are you here alone?”

“I’m here with my best friend,” Aiba said, and Sho was surprised by the disappointment he felt when he heard that. He had wanted to get to know Aiba better, but if Aiba had come with his best friend, they would probably not want a stranger to hang out with them. “He spends all his time at the arcade in the town centre, though,” Aiba explained, rolling his eyes. “I think he met some of the locals there and have started hanging out with them. Oh well, it’s not like I could convince him to go running or hiking with me, anyway.”

“You run every morning?”

“Yeah, it’s really great here,” Aiba replied excitedly. “I wish I could come here all the time...”

“If you don’t mind, I could join you,” Sho said tentatively.

“Are you sure it’s okay with you?” Aiba asked, studying Sho. “You’re not as pale as Nino, but you don’t look the outdoorsy type...”

“I’m in the soccer club at school,” Sho said defensively. 

“I bet you joined because it would look good on your school transcripts,” Aiba said, grinning when Sho reddened a little. Before Sho could say anything else, he said, “okay, okay, you can join me tomorrow.”

})i({

Aiba spent most of his evenings with Nino, but all of his mornings, and the rest of his evenings were spent with Sho. He was surprised that despite the fact that Sho spent all his summers there, it was Aiba who had to introduce all the fun things they could do together. He supposed that Sho probably never bothered doing all the things that tourists did while on vacation, but he thought that it was a waste.

It surprised him, how quickly they became close. Sometimes he would feel a niggling feeling of dread or guilt, thinking that perhaps they should talk about what they were really doing, and how they really felt about spending time with each other. But being with Sho was a little like running on the beach; his pulse would quicken, he would feel a rush of elation running through every inch of him, and he would blank out everything else. There would be no one and nothing else in the world, as far as he was concerned.

He had thought that running was the only thing that could make him feel this way. He hadn’t known that people could make you feel like this, too.

})i({

“Aiba!”

Aiba and Sho stopped, hearing the voice calling out in the crowded street. Seeing the figure coming towards them, Aiba leaned in to tell Sho, “that’s my best friend, Nino.”

“What are you doing here?” Nino asked. “I thought you said you didn’t want to come to the festival.”

“Umm, well,” Aiba mumbled. “I didn’t at first, but then Sho asked if I wanted to go, so...”

Nino had heard that Aiba made a new friend, but it was the first time he met Sho. He studied the other boy for a moment, and smiled. “Hi, I’m Nino,” he said, introducing himself.

“I’m Sho,” Aiba’s new friend replied. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Yeah, same here...” Nino trailed off as his caught sight of Sho and Aiba’s entwined hands. He and Aiba held hands all the time, but for some reason, it didn’t seem the same. Perhaps it was because he and Aiba had known each other forever, and these two had only met about a week ago. His eyes went back up, and this time he noticed the almost giddy expression in Aiba’s eyes. “Um, Aiba, can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Sure.” Puzzled, Aiba disentangled his hand from Sho’s and told Sho to wait for him, while he walked off with Nino.

})i({

“What were you thinking?” Nino asked, voice raised.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Aiba replied, frowning at his friend. 

“I’m talking,” Nino said with exaggerated patience, “about you and Sho.”

“We’re friends. I can make friends, can’t I?”

“You’re friends,” Nino repeated incredulously.  _Did Aiba really believe that, or did he think that I’m that easily fooled?_

“Yeah,” Aiba said, nodding. “I don’t know what you’re so worked up about.”

“Okay,” Nino said slowly. “If you say so. Have you told him about Misaki?”

“Misaki?”

“ _You know_.” Nino wasn’t glaring at Aiba, not quite, but he came pretty close. “Your _girlfriend_. The one you’ve been dating for the past year.”

“I know who Misaki is,” Aiba said testily. “I just don’t see what she has to do with anything.”

Nino shook his head. “I guess you’re really that dense after all.”

“Hey!” Aiba protested.

“You realise that we’re leaving in a couple of days, right?” Nino asked, changing the subject.

“Why are you asking me all these stuff?” Aiba asked back. “Of course I know that...” he paused, feeling like his heart was being squeezed, painfully. When he went back, he wouldn’t be able to see Sho any longer. He looked at Nino in sudden panic, realising what his best friend was trying to tell him.

His best friend just sighed, and said, “you really ought to notice these things for yourself, you know.”

“What should I tell him?” Aiba asked, his whisper barely heard, even though they were pretty far from the noisy crowds in the streets. Nino knew what he was saying, though.

“I don’t know. The truth?”

Aiba thought about it. “We still have a couple of days,” he said. “I want this to last as long as it could.”

“It’s your choice,” Nino said, but he looked disapproving.

When the two of them returned to Sho, Nino just smiled at Sho and said that he was meeting with his other friends elsewhere, and for the two of them to enjoy themselves. Aiba and Sho watched Nino disappear into the crowd in silence.

“What did he want to talk to you about?” Sho asked, breaking the silence. “Or was it something you can tell me?”

“It’s nothing important,” Aiba said, smiling at Sho. His hands found Sho’s again, and he pulled the other boy along. “Come on, lets find someplace quieter to hang out.”

})i({

The two of them walked for awhile, until they were far enough that the noise wasn’t too loud, and they could talk to each other without raising their voices. But once they stopped walking, they just looked at each other. Now that they could finally talk, neither of them knew what to talk about.

Sho looked at their joined hands, and swallowed the lump in his throat. “This is something different, isn’t it?”

Somehow Aiba understood what he was trying to say, and just nodded. “For some reason, I can’t let go,” Aiba said softly.

“I felt that way too, from the first time I took your hand,” Sho admitted. Aiba loved the way Sho looked down in embarrassment as he said that. 

“Want to dance?” Aiba suddenly asked. It was the only thing he could think of, since they could hear bits of music coming in from the festival, and it was an excuse to be closer to the other boy. Sho just gave him a look, like he was wondering,  _are you serious?_ , so Aiba pulled Sho closer. As they moved slowly to the music they could hardly hear, Aiba sung softly, an old ballad he told Sho his mother used to sing to him.

})i({

They realised that things had changed between them, but neither of them mentioned it. They spent the remaining days of Aiba’s holiday like they usually did - meeting in the morning for a run, before having breakfast at Sho’s parents’ hotel. In the afternoons and evenings they wandered around the nearby town, or explored the quieter areas of the beach, just walking and talking. It didn’t really matter what they were doing. It was each other’s company that they wanted.

On Aiba’s last evening there, they sat in a secluded part of the beach that they had discovered earlier in the week. “I bet the sunset looks amazing from here,” Aiba said, breathing heavily. They had ran all the way there, because Aiba wanted one last run before he had to go home. 

“Mmm,” Sho agreed, but he was thinking that he never really noticed how beautiful the sunrise or sunsets at the ocean looked, before Aiba. “I’m glad you enjoyed your holiday,” he said.

Aiba thought of how he could rest his head on Sho’s shoulders, if he only tilted his head a little. They were sitting that closely together. Clearing his throat, he said, “I have something for you.”

Sho turned to him curiously. “What is it?”

“Here.” It was a thin, white, sealed envelope. “Read it when I’m gone.”

“Does it have your address in here?” Sho asked. “So that we could keep in touch.”

Aiba just smiled, with a slight hint of sadness in his eyes. “I’ll really miss you,” he said. “I’ll never forget this summer.”

Sho pocketed the envelope. He wanted to ask Aiba about his plans after high school. He wanted them to work out a way to keep in touch after Aiba leaves, because surely this summer had meant as much to Aiba as it did him. “Masaki, I -” he stopped, interrupted by Aiba, who was suddenly in front of him. “What...?”

“Think of this as an experiment,” Aiba said mischievously, but he looked very serious to Sho, as his fingers went up to touch Sho’s face, gingerly, before trailing down to Sho’s collarbone, and resting there. Sho’s eyes widened as they looked into Aiba’s. His mouth parted slightly, as Aiba leaned forwards, and their lips met in a kiss.

It didn’t last long, but it was the longest few seconds Sho had ever spent. When Aiba pulled away, he heard a faint whimper in protest, and he reddened, realising that it came from him. 

“Sho?” Aiba recovered faster than he did, although he looked just as flushed as Sho felt. “Sho-chan?” He smiled a little. “Maybe breathing would be a good idea?”

Sho let out the breath that he had been holding in one go. Aiba laughed softly at him, and he smiled. “Masaki,” he said, remembering what he had wanted to say earlier. “I -”

“Read the letter when I’m gone, okay?” Aiba interrupted, as he stood up. “I need to go now. I  _still_  haven’t packed, can you believe that? Nino will be really pissed if we miss the ferry to the mainland.” He didn’t look at Sho as he said goodbye quickly, and ran off, leaving Sho behind to stare after him.

})i({

 _“Think of this as an experiment.”_

 _Was that all it was?_  Sho wondered. The best summer he had spent, and it was just an ‘experiment’? He looked at the letter before him again, but he couldn’t bring himself to re-read it.

Masaki had a girlfriend. Had been dating her for a little over a year. He didn’t expect to see Sho ever again, the letter said, and asked that Sho forget about him.

 _“I’ll never forget this summer.”_

If he had wanted Sho to forget him, why did he say that? Or was he lying? Sho wondered why Aiba would string him along, why Aiba would let him believe that there was really something going on between them, when he had planned to walk out on Sho in the end. 

Placing the letter back in the envelope, and the envelope safely in his drawer, Sho turned off the lights, and went to bed, still paralysed from the shock of Aiba’s departure.  _I should have known_ , he thought, as the numbness started to fade, and doubling over in the almost physical pain that was starting to come. He knew that he would wake up in the next morning thinking of Aiba, and it made him wish that he had the option never to wake up again, not if it meant facing the rest of his days feeling the way he did.

“Goodbye,” he murmured, squeezing his eyes shut, and trying to drive away his memories.

Aiba had left without letting him say even that much.


End file.
